Wallace had never before faced such an army, or fought a large battle without a natural defence. Here was no river, no narrow bridge to halt an armoured charge, and he may have sensed this was the end, for he made no great exhortation, but spoke simply and bluntly to his spearmen.

William Wallace talking to his men

"Now" , exclaimed Wallace, with pleasant confidence, to his soldiers, " I haif brocht ye to the ring -- hop (dance) gif ye can!", and at that moment the heavily-mailed English cavalry of the first line fell with a tremendous shock on the charged spears of the schiltron units of the Scots.

Before Edward could fully deploy his army the impatient young bloods of the English chivalry, anxious to prove themselves, charged the Scottish schiltrons. They failed to break the well-disciplined Scots; but they slew the bowmen caught in the open between the formations.

Galloping into the marshland, the horses slowed down. The majority of the English horsemen then wheeled to the left and right and rode around the swamp, hitting the Scots in the rear.

The shock of the battle scattered the Scots horsemen and the English now plunged amid their foot-soldiers. The bows of the Scots that had not been silenced, had little power to penetrate the partial-plate and mail armour of the English heavy cavalry. They were quickly dispatched by the now charging English horsemen. But the Scots spearmen held firm. Their rope and stake entanglements tripped the English horses: knights crashed to the ground and were quickly killed by the Scots. The English men-at-arms could not break the relentless rows of pikes. The English Master of the Templars rushed too recklessly on the spear forest, flailing madly with his sword, hoping to break it with animal strength. He and his five retainers were impaled. By this time, Edward and his foot-soldiers had caught up with the knights and called off their rash attacks.

Edward had seen the danger of ultimate disaster and gathered his secret new weapon -- the Welsh longbowmen.

Many young English knights were impaled or, rather, their horses were impaled by the speared schiltrons and hundreds were pulled from their horses and beaten with mace and war hammer to the death.

As the Welsh archers gathered in position, a most curious thing happened. At that very moment, to the bewilderment of Wallace, "Red" John Comyn, a rival of Robert the Bruce, drew off all his vassals (mostly light horse and infantry), and with the utmost deliberation quitted the field.

It appears Wallace had been betrayed in the midst of combat, whether or not this was the work of Edward I is unknown. Wallace, showing no dismay to his men, stood firm, though he now had only about 4,000-5,000 followers to face over 13,000 English heavily armed troops and cavalry.

It couldn't have been worse timing for the Scots and Wallace, for now nothing stood between Edwards deadly arrows and the immovable Scottish schiltrons. It couldn't have been better timing for Edward, to have Red Comyn's men quit the field at this exact moment. This has led to centuries of speculation that Wallace had been intentionally betrayed and that Edward might have had a hand in it. But, there is no substantive proof of this, and since Red Comyn was murdered by the Bruce in 1306, the only man who might know exactly why he left the battlefield was dead and silenced forever. It seems likely that Wallace was betrayed, if not by Edward's own planning, then at least by jealous Scottish nobles, who saw a losing battle and left with their men, leaving Wallace and his loyal peasant army to die alone against the might of Englands power and Edwards vengeance.

The Scottish archers had been removed (killed) from the field by the English cavalry and only Wallace and his infantry were left. He did all a brave man could do to inspire his men, fighting in the front ranks with his large two-handed sword.

Victory and Defeat
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The schiltrons had been a successful new tactic employed by Wallace against the English heavy horse attack. Many more English horse knights fell that day than Edward had ever expected. This new tactic, first employed here at Falkirk, not Stirling, was to make a hugh impact on future methods of fighting for both infantry and cavalry. Indeed, a similar process was used, with success, by the Femish Pikemen against the cream of the French chivalry (horse-warriors) in 1302. However, with the apparent betrayal of Red Comyn, and the new English tactic of using the Welsh longbow in mass units to shower dealy arrows at range at the enemy, finally took its toll on the Scots.

With no enemy horse or archers to harry him, Edward's Welsh longbowmen were placed in front of the trapped and immovable Scottish schiltrons. They fired hail after hail of deadly arrows into the standing targets. The stalwart Scots could only take so much. Men fell and gaps appeared in the once formidable spear wall. It was then that Edward sent his knights in among the broken formations. With war hammer, axe, mace and sword, the horse-warriors hacked at the Gaelic underlings.

Again and again the cavalry of the English spurred in furious charges on the Scottish pikes (spears). Stoutly the Scots stood, shoulder to shoulder; and though infantry came up, the showers of cloth-yard shafts were shot point blank into the ranks of Wallace, along with a storm of stones from Irish slings, (they did fight on the English side). The slingers and archers plied their missles securely from a distance, they could not penetrate what one old historian called "that wood of spears". But it was taking its toll on the Scots.

Repeatedly, the English and Welsh archers poured showers of arrows on the Scottish spearmen concentrating on one schiltron at a time. Each formation was quickly reduced to a pile of dead or dying men; then Edward unleashed his cavalry a final time. They rode over the field hacking down the survivors.

Sir William Wallace

All around Wallace, his men fell. Sir John the Grahame of Dundaff, the friend of Wallace, and the young Earl of Fife, with nearly all of their vassals, were slain; and now the survivors, disheartened alike by the fall of their three principle leaders, fell into disorder. Already deserted by their cavalry, most of it riding off with Red Comyn, and, after the destruction of their archers, Scots were left exposed to a pitiless storm of missles from the Welsh Longbow and Irish slings. Scottish infantry, with their long spears leveled over a breastwork of their dead and dying, made a desperate attempt only to keep their ground. But their numbers were thinning fast, and when the English cavalry once more dashed upon them, with lance and sword, axe and mace, it was all over.

The Scots had resisted with the fury of despair, hundreds died beneath the drumming hooves. At last the Guardian was forced to flee whilst his army and hopes died around him. "They fell like blossoms in an orchard when the fruit has ripened," an English chronicler exulted.

Wallace Escapes the Field
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Wallace escaped, riding northward to Callander and the mountains. The dead of his valiant army is unknown, although the North-English Lanercost chronicler recorded a preposterous figure of sixty thousand, many more times the total number of men engaged. "Nor was there slain on the English side any noblemen except the Master of Templars, with five or six esquires who charged the schiltrons of the Scots to hotly and rashly." More English horses were killed than men, and Edward paid compensation for more than a hundred lost by his knights. "England exult!" cried the chronicler,

"Berwick, Dunbar and Falkirk too,
"Show all that traitor Scots can do.
"England exult! Thy Prince is peerless,
"Where thee he leadeth, follow fearless."